The Scobee Planetarium at San Antonio College will celebrate “50 Years Under the Stars” Saturday with free shows, presentations and a star party.

Free planetarium shows will be held 4-9 p.m., and the star party will be held 7-10 p.m.

This event is open to the public and will be held at San Antonio College, 1300 San Pedro Ave., just off the West Park entrance on San Pedro Avenue. Parking is free and will be in lot 21 just off West Park Street.

Related Stories

If weather permits, the college observatory and a variety of other telescopes will be available for the public to look through. All of this is at no charge.

A complete schedule can be found at alamo.edu/sac/ce/scobee/publicshows2.html.

While you're enjoying a night under the stars Saturday evening, gaze toward the north at 7:46 p.m. for a glimpse of the Nano Sail-D satellite. It will be bright and move toward the southeast. It will fade from view around 7:53 p.m.

Nano Sail should be visible with just the naked eye, so try it even if you're not at the star party.

Jupiter will be a nice showpiece for the evening rising in the east, so be sure to have someone show it to you through a telescope. It's an amazing sight.

The moon will be just left of the teapot shape of Sagittarius in the south and is always a thrill to view in a telescope.

The moon will be just a few days before full phase, so it will be very bright and will illuminate the sky, making dimmer objects a challenge to view.

The asteroid Vesta will be visible as a golden yellow speck of light low in Capricornus. You'll need a scope to view it, and a finder chart to pick it out of the crowd.

A star map for locating the asteroid is at media.skyandtelescope.com/documents/Ceres-Vesta-2011.pdf.

Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd sits high overhead after dark in the constellation Hercules.

It's currently glowing at 8th magnitude, so you'll need binoculars or a telescope to enjoy it. It doesn't have much of a tail yet, but may develop one as it brightens the next couple of months.

To keep a close watch on the comet, go to media.skyandtelescope.com/documents/Garradd_Findr.pdf for a handy finder chart.